This specification relates to optimizing file operation tasks in distributed systems. A distributed system is a collection of networked computing devices or “nodes” working together to perform a computing task. In some cases, the computing task may involve analyzing a large amount of data by breaking the data into small chunks that can be handled in parallel by the nodes. The computing task may also involve storing large amounts of data in an efficient and fault tolerant manner. One system for performing such a task is a distributed file system.
Distributed file systems allow file data to be stored across different nodes. The system may store multiple copies of the data on different nodes so that the failure of a single node will not lead to loss or unavailability of the file data. In some cases, a distributed file system may allow clients to perform operations similar to those provided by a standard local file system, such as, for example, copying, deleting, and merging files. The clients may perform these operations by issuing file operation requests to nodes of the distributed file system, either directly or through a management application associated with the distributed file system.